This report mainly covers ISRM-related information from the Board and Council meetings held on 30 September /01 October and 02 October 2017 respectively in association with the Afrirock 2017 conference in Cape Town, South Africa. 54 of the 62 ISRM National Groups attended the Council meeting, of which 51 are paid up and were able to vote.

Election of President for term 2019 -2023

The ISRM Board (President, Regional Vice-Presidents, Vice Presidents at Large, Secretary General) is elected for four year terms – currently 2015 to 2019. The ISRM has a policy of electing the President for the following term (2019 – 2023) two years ahead so that the elected candidate becomes a member of the current Board as President-elect. The intention of such an overlap is that the next term President becomes fully familiar with Society needs and Board protocols and leadership before formally taking up the Presidential role.

Resat Ulusay, currently Professor at Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey, was elected as president-elect.

Society name

The proposal from the Board for a name change to the “International Society for Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering” was voted on by the Council and was successful.
With the successful vote, a second vote was held for the acrynom to become ISRMRE and was unsuccessful, remaining as ISRM.

Rocha medal 2018:

The winner for 2018 was announced at the Council Meeting:
Michael du Plessis (South Africa) with the thesis “Design and Performance of Crush Pillars” (University of Pretoria)
See the awards briefing in this issue for information regarding the 2019 Rocha medal.

Young Professionals:

At Afrirock the Board, mainly via the Education Fund, promoted an Early Career Forum. Eight young professionals from South Africa and Zimbabwe were funded to present their work at a special session during the conference. After the session there was an open discussion on the experience and how best to continue such events and communication.

ISRM On-line lectures

Two ISRM on-line lectures have been given over the last months:

18th by Dr Marc Panet on 13th July 2017 with the title “ The deformations in the vicinity of the face of a deep tunnel”

19th by Professor Xia-Ting Feng on 26 September 2017 with the title “Rockbursts at Deep Tunnels”

The lectures are available on the ISRM website along with earlier lectures.

Communication:

For NZGS members affiliated to ISRM there is a members area on the ISRM website (www.isrm.net) with access to further products. The ISRM Digital Library is part of OnePetro (https://www.onepetro.org), a large online library managed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers. ISRM individual members are allowed to download, at no cost, up to 100 papers per year from the ISRM conferences.
Other recent items on the website include:
a) Video of point load strength test (under testing methods, ex Korea university) (https://www.isrm.net/gca/?id=1233).
b) Video course on “Key Principles in Rock Mechanics” by Prof Jian Zhao – 6 modules (https://www.isrm.net/gca/?id=912)

Suggested Methods – Apart from compilations in the Blue (1974 to 2006) and Orange (2007 to 2014) books, all the procedures have been published in the journal “Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering” and the “International Journal for Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences”.

Slide Collection – 280 slides organised into 14 themes (each with 20 slides) available ISRM members registered on the website.

The five-volume set “Rock Mechanics and Engineering”, edited by Prof. Xia-Ting Feng, with the editorial advice of Professor John A. Hudson, is now available updating on the five-volume set “Comprehensive Rock Engineering” (1993). It is published by CRC Press with a 30% discount to ISRM members.

Commissions

There are 17 ISRM Commissions in the 2015 – 2019 term (not listed here but included in a previous Geomechanics News). Commission purposes and anticipated products, along with membership, are included on the ISRM website (links on https://www.isrm.net/gca/?id=153).